Marc Finks

Module 3, Unit 1, Activity 3

During the past two decades, brain research by neuroscientists has had a direct influence on new teaching theories about how students can best learn and what we, as teachers, can do to improve our classrooms and teaching styles in order to benefit our students. The Sonomo County of Education has established twelve principles that form the basis of brain-based learning according to the Talking Page Literacy Organization (2014).

The first principle states that the brain is a parallel processor, which means that thoughts, intuitions, pre-dispositions, and emotions operate simultaneously and interact with other modes of information. According to Marilee Springer (2013), music has a direct effect on the emotions of students and should be used as part of the classroom environment (p.35). In the classroom teachers should play different kinds of music at different times in the class, for example, low classical music during reading time, or fun, bouncy pop music that the students can sing along to when they work in groups and need to be more active and awake.

The second principle states that learning engages the entire physiology, which includes how well the students eat and how much they sleep. While teachers can’t necessarily control the amount of sleep students, besides offering suggestions to parents during one-on-one meetings, we can make design activities that require students to get out of the chairs quite often. We could have students act out scenes from books while reading them, or have them measure something on the playground, and or challenge them to activities that require them to be active in the classroom.

The third principle states that the search for meaning is innate, which means students need to have a chance to reflect on what they’ve learned. It’s important to let students write journals, or even have them fill out exit-cards (Springer, p.49-50) that allow them to think about what they’ve learned. Keeping an online journal would make it easier for both the student and the teacher to access it.

Principles four and five state that the search for meaning occurs through patterning and that emotions are critical to patterning. It’s important for teachers to try and make sure that their lessons are thematically connected across different subjects. It’ll help students better connect and remember the content. Meanwhile, besides playing music, students’ emotions are also affected by group work, and teachers should make an effort to organize students in groups where they feel relaxed and safe, yet also respected.

Principle six states that every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and wholes. Instead of just teaching to right-brain or left-brain, it’s best to understand that it’s best to activate the entire brain at once. This ties into principle four, but teachers should try to incorporate cross-disciplinary lessons, where students learn about art and math simultaneously, or music and science.

Principle seven states that learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception. Basically, this means that it’s important for our classrooms to be rich learning environments. Instead of just reading about World War II, have students reenact the movement of armies using an online Risk game and talk about how things could’ve been done differently. Engage students with projects that involve doing research in the community and interacting with people outside of the classroom.

Principle eight states that learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes. This ties back into allowing the students opportunities to reflect upon what they’ve learned, and giving them chances to internalize new information and later show what they have learned through different varieties of output.

Principle nine states that we have at least two types of memory -- a spatial memory system and a set of systems for rote learning. Most of our students have smart phones that they can use to take photos. A photo scavenger hunt, where students must find things from a list, take their photo with it, and then have them later write a journal about how and where they found certain items, and it means to them, could help achieve this principle as well as several others.

Principle ten states that the brain understand and remembers best when facts and skills are embedded in natural spatial memory. This means that we learn best when our learning involves our environment. For a lesson on rainforests, the teacher could talk about it, have students watch videos and do research, and then have them try and recreate a rainforest in the classroom somehow.

Principle eleven states that learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat. This goes back to making the classroom a safe environment, which comes from giving positive feedback to the students, and always being aware of the shifting social situations in the class. Once the students feel like they can trust one another, which could be done by setting up an Edmodo site and having students have discussions and share ideas in a controlled environment, then their collaborative work should improve as well.

Principle twelve states that each brain is unique. Basically, students all learn in different ways, and with ready access to the various form of media, we should try different ways and formats to teach information to our students. Whether it means playing music or watching videos from Youtube, or doing an online mental puzzle, or even reading an e-book, all students can learn. It’s up to us to figure out how to use the tools that are available to us.

 

References:

Springer, Marilee (2013) Brain-based Teaching in the Digital Age.  Retrieved on February 18, 2014 fromhttps://www.aa.edu/ftpimages/109/download/ABCs_XYZs_Sprenger.pdf.

Talking Page Literacy Organization. Retrieved on October 18, 2014 from http://www.talkingpage.org/artic011.html.